Jon Aguiar lashes out at WSOP after disparaging tweet

The World Series of Poker takes place in the middle of the dessert during the summer months, so it comes as no surprise that cooler heads don’t often prevail when arguments arise, and the most recent controversy is a perfect example of this. Poker pro Jon Aguiar was dismayed by a new rule at the 2012 WSOP that calls on players at final tables to “verbalize” their actions, and the often outspoken Aguiar decided to let his feeling be known on the matter through his Twitter account:

“the @wsop final table rule required playing to announce every single action and bet is possibly the worst rule in poker history @wsoptd”

Aguiar was actually perturbed by two things regarding “Rule 88” as it is known. Not only was Aguiar unhappy with the implications of the rule itself, but also that the rule was being enforced differently depending on who was at the table. As Lock Poker pro Bryan Pelligrino (who was also at the final table with Aguiar; the pair finished 2nd and 3rd) told PokerStrategy.com:

“I didn’t know the verbal declarations rule before I was at the final table. It wasn’t enforced at all while Negreanu and Vedes were still at the table, but 3 handed they started to enforce it very strictly. They were really obnoxious about it and told us to verbalize EVERY action – even checks and folds.

“We asked if we could just verbalize our bets but they said ‘no’ and said they would start issuing penalties. The dealer verbalized loudly every time we did something, then the floorman would announce it with the microphone, AND they had commentators announcing – forcing us to do that was just ridiculous.”

Another poker player, Shawn Daniels (@ShawnIvey_obv), decided to fire back at Aguiar, tweeting:

“@JonAguiar @wsop @wsoptd why are you the only one who cries all day every day about everything Adapt and stop sounding like a complete bitch”

When Daniels message was retweeted on the official WSOP Twitter account (later determined to have been made by WSOP Communications Director Seth Palansky) the ‘fit hit the shan’ as they say, and Aguiar was rightfully outraged that the WSOP would call him a “bitch” publicly.

Around the same time WSOP Tournament Director Jack Effel tweeted his own message to Aguiar, saying, “@JonAguiar appreciate your support in helping grow the great game of poker!” Aguair responded with a number of Tweets calling the WSOP and Seth Palansky unprofessional, and then some.

This isn’t Aguiar’s first brush with controversy, as you may remember he and Joe Sebok got into a bit of a tiff over a private message sent to Aguiar by Sebok, where possible coercive language was used to try to get Aguiar to stop badmouthing UB Poker, where Sebok worked at the time.

Aguiar also called out the WSOP earlier this year, calling their “Staff Appreciation Fees” on the Circuit Series “predatory” in a 2+2 thread:

“This type of predatory behavior by those people running poker tournaments is destroying poker, money is being collected by the fistfulls from the lower rungs of the poker world and taken out never to return, all by the staff running the events. Just like everywhere else in America today the 1% that controls the infrastructure of the poker world are taking as much as they can get away with from the rest. If we allow this to be swept under the rug and don’t make a big deal about this they’ll just take more from us next year and so on until they’ve sucked the poker world dry.”

This story is going to be covered on tonight’s episode of PokerFraudAlert Radio, which airs at 7 PM PDT on Tuesday June 5th. You can listen tonight by visiting www.pokerfraudalert.com

This entry was posted
on Tuesday, June 5th, 2012 at 8:56 am and is filed under Poker News.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.